CLICKING once more on the remote, the hologram shifted to that of a brick castle on top of a green forested mountain. The surrounding mountains, dabbled with greenery, and rolling hills were an after beauty compared to the majestic castle with its creamy beige bricks, topped with deep cherry red clay tiles for the roofs. It was as if the castle itself was part of the mountain it sat on, molded up out of the shrubs and earthy dirt from the mountain side.
Dark olive green vines grew, coiling up towards the brick buttresses that ran the full height of the building on all sides, which rouse 27 meters in height. Audrey's eyes lingered on the tall structure. If only I was permitted to use my powers I could easily scale this castle's height. The idea put a damper on her mood.
A windy road, akin to that of a slithering snake's body, started from the castle and led down the mountain into a fair sized town. Within the belly of the town, hundreds of stone houses and buildings of all various sizing littered in a half circle around the castle. As they all studied the picture as a whole, it was as if they stared at something from Google images on Greece or Italy. Houses and buildings alike ranged from brick, stone to wood. As if time had never changed in this part of the world, staying as old as the medieval centuries.
After an interval, allowing everyone to soak in the picture, Audrey opened her mouth to speak, "This is Doom's—"
"Condo?" Tony interrupted, lifting a single dark eyebrow in shock.
"Might as well be," mumbled Zachary. Audrey smirked at her brother and shifted her eyes to Tony's dark ones staring at her in answer.
"As a matter-of-fact, no. It's actually his home. This is his sovereign realm—"
"He's a monarch!? Don't tell me this guy's a royal and that we have to bow down to all of you now?" Clint exasperated, stepped out of the shadows to give his two cents.
Audrey laughed. "As much as I'd like that, no. He fought his way to take this castle and the surrounding town way back before my brother and I existed. The castle is located in Latveria." Audrey clicked the remote and a map of the world came into view, zooming in on a certain part. A red dot marked Latveria in bold black letters. "Latveria is located in Central Europe. It is surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, and borders Hungary on the North, Romania on the East, Serbia on the West, and Symkaria on the South."
The assassin sifted through the photos on the screen till she was back to Doom's realm. Seconds from proceeding to her next bit of news, Clint breathed an utter of words, "Daughter like father," from behind Audrey's shoulder, indicating both had similar tastes in buildings. Her keep and Doom's castle.
An involuntary shiver ran the length of her spine, as if those words Clint innocently spoke rolled over her like a blast of frigid air, leaving her immobile and incapable of moving. And the chuckles from the rest of the group certainly hadn't helped loosen her limbs one bit.
The only person to have noticed her slight behavioral change happened to be her kin, and a certain lean but muscular black kitty leaning on the wall at the other end of the room. Quiet as he was, T'Challa observed carefully from the sidelines, like a lion stalking its prey, he didn't pounce at first opportunity, but waited patiently till the time came for him to speak.
Forcing herself to smirk a little, she straightened up and continued. "'Through the grapevine,'" Audrey started, and decidedly used Viper's own words. "She told me that this is where Doom does his transactions."
"But that's impossible, we have him on camera doing a deal," Steve spoke, eyebrows scrunched together, confused.
Audrey turned her head in his direction. Her eyes, which pitied not only him but all of them, softened when landing on him. "No, I'm afraid that's where you're all mistaken. You see, his realm is where the real business takes place. Whatever footage you may have thought that he was in, was a fake. Viper says he does that to make others think he does his business in certain areas outside or inside State, when the real transactions are actually taking place here." She nodded towards the hologram to the picture of Doom's looming castle over the town.
The picture must have been taken in the evening, for a stream of gold sunlight warmed one side of the palace as its setting rays washed down the tall structure, lending tall dark shadows on the mountain. The orange ball in the sky gave the castle a reddish tinge to the creamy white bricks. The castle appeared to be pleasing to the eyes, even inviting, but such was an illusion, for Audrey knew well enough that a monster prowled about in there. And not one with fur either.
"Each abandoned place he 'supposedly' does his business at," she carried on, "is actually a decoy. Some of his products are being sold, lets say here, while the majority of it is being sold at his realm. So if a deal goes south here, at least his cover hasn't been blown, along with the location of his home and if he loses those products its peanuts to him. It's like Stark losing a hundred dollars out of his billions."
"So why the blueprints?" asked Tony, having his thinking face on. "I mean if you're already making big bucks through these transactions, why steal from SHIELD?"
"Because SHIELD's toys are cooler?" suggested Clint.
"Uh yes, those." Audrey clicked on the remote and pictures of the blueprints that were stolen by Doom, lined up next to each other. In no particular order, they went: Black Widow's Sting Line, a firearm, one of Iron Man's suits from Stark Industries, a Blackbird jet along with the Goblin Glider jet, and Falcon's wings.
"Is it me, or did he just pick such random blueprints, as if he selected them by way of the 'eeny meeny miny moe?' rhyme?" Zachary felt compelled to ask.
Everyone stopped to think, and peered closely at the monitor's screen. "No," Steve was the first to say what they all were thinking. "Nothing Doom does has been random. First with the Fantastic Four, now us. There's gotta be some clue hidden here that we're missing." Steve looked thoughtfully and painfully intense at the screen. His arms crossed, he held a hand to his chin as his eyes bounced from one blueprint to the next.
"I think I can help with this mystery of yours," Audrey butted in. "Viper told me—and none too lightly either. Something is going on in Latveria." Audrey's eyes skimmed the Iron Man suit blueprint, along with the Falcon's suit. "Viper said Doom had, more than once, plainly voiced his opinion about Hydra and their, ah, as he puts it 'ridiculous ways of operating.' Not too long ago Viper and Hydra confirmed that he is planning to over throw all law and supernatural enforcements. He's determined to overthrow even Hydra. My guess is that he wants ultimate power in the world."
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A Reckless Soul | Captain America ✓
Fanfiction"Come at me like a real man, or does your religion not allow you to spill blood?" She laughed and further lowered her lips to his ear, whispering, "You're weak and pathetic Captain." *** She was r...
